Julie Delpy (; born 21 December 1969) is a French and American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She studied filmmaking at
NYU's
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...
and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, including ''
Europa Europa'' (1990), ''
Voyager'' (1991), ''
Three Colours: White'' (1993), the ''
Before'' trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013), ''
An American Werewolf in Paris'' (1997), and ''
2 Days in Paris'' (2007).
She has been nominated for three
César Award Cesar or César may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* César (film), ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama
* César (film), ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* Cesar Department, Colombia
* Cesar R ...
s, two
Online Film Critics Society Awards
The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) is an international professional association of online film journalists, historians and scholars who publish their work on the World Wide Web. The organization was founded in January 1997 by Harvey S. Karten ...
, and two
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
. She moved to the United States in 1990 and became a US citizen in 2001.
Family
Delpy was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, the only child of
Albert Delpy, a French actor and theater director born in Vietnam, and Marie Pillet, a French actress in feature films and the
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
theater. Her mother was also known for signing the 1971 ''
Manifesto of the 343
The Manifesto of the 343 Women () is a French petition penned by Simone de Beauvoir, and signed by 343 women, all publicly declaring that they had had an illegal abortion. The manifesto was published under the title, "" (), on 5 April 1971, in iss ...
'', signed by women demanding reproductive rights and admitting to having abortions when they were illegal in France. In Delpy's 2007 film ''
2 Days in Paris'', her character's mother was played by her real mother and acknowledges signing the manifesto, mirroring her real life. Pillet died in 2009.
Julie's parents exposed her to the arts at an early age. She said:
Film career
In 1984, at fourteen, Delpy was discovered by film director
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
, who cast her in ''
Détective'' (1985). Two years later she played the title role in
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier (; 25 April 1941 – 25 March 2021) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Life and career
Tavernier was born in Lyon, France, the son of Geneviève (née Dumond) and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, ...
's ''
La Passion Béatrice'' (1987) and was nominated for a
César Award for Most Promising Actress Cesar or César may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* Cesar Department, Colombia
* Cesar River, in Colombia
* Cesar ...
. She used her money from the film to pay for her first trip to New York City.

Delpy became an international celebrity after starring in the 1990 film ''
Europa Europa'' directed by
Agnieszka Holland. In the film, she plays a young pro-
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
who falls in love with the hero,
Solomon Perel, not knowing he is Jewish. She did not speak German, so she performed her role in English and her dialogue was dubbed in.
Delpy subsequently appeared in several
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
and European films, including ''
Voyager'' (1991) and ''
The Three Musketeers
''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...
'' (1993). In 1993, she was cast by director
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski (, 27 June 1941 – 14 March 1996) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He is known internationally for ''Dekalog'' (1989), ''The Double Life of Veronique'' (1991), and the Three Colours trilogy, ''Three Colours'' ...
for the female lead in ''
Three Colours: White'', the second film in Kieślowski's
''Three Colours'' trilogy. She also appeared briefly in the other two films - ''
Blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...
'' and ''
Red -'' in the same role. That year, she also appeared with
Brendan Fraser and
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (17 July 1935 – 20 June 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received List of awards and nominations received by Donald Sutherland, numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award ...
in the
Percy Adlon
Paul Rudolf Parsifal "Percy" Adlon (; 1 June 1935 – 10 March 2024) was a German director, screenwriter, and producer. He is associated with the New German Cinema movement (ca. 1965–1985), and is known for his strong female characters and po ...
feature ''
Younger and Younger''. In 1994, she starred with
Eric Stoltz in
Roger Avary
Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his work with Quentin Tarantino on the script for ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), for which they won Best Original Screenpla ...
's directorial debut ''
Killing Zoe'', a cult heist film capturing the
Generation X
Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...
zeitgeist.
She achieved wider recognition for her role opposite
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, author, and film director. He made his film debut in ''Explorers (film), Explorers'' (1985), before making a breakthrough performance in ''Dead Poets Society'' (1989). Hawke starr ...
in director
Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...
's ''
Before Sunrise
''Before Sunrise'' is a 1995 Romance film, romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan, and is the first installment in the Before trilogy, ''Before'' trilogy. In the film, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) an ...
'' (1995). It received glowing reviews and was considered one of the most significant films of the '90s
independent film movement. Its success led to Delpy's casting in the
1997
Events January
* January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.
* January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
* January 1 ...
American film ''
An American Werewolf in Paris''.
She reprised her ''Before Sunrise'' character, Céline, with a brief animated appearance in ''
Waking Life
''Waking Life'' is a 2001 American adult animated surrealist drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, ...
'' (2001), and again in the sequels ''
Before Sunset'' (2004) and ''
Before Midnight'' (2013). The initial follow-up movie earned Delpy, who co-wrote the script, her first
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nomination for
Best Adapted Screenplay.
In late 2001, she appeared alongside comedian
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian and American comedian, actor, and writer. Short is known as an energetic comedian who gained prominence for his roles in sketch comedy. He has also acted in numerous films and television ...
in the 30-minute short film ''
CinéMagique'', a theatre-show attraction presented several times daily at
Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park ( French: ''Parc Walt Disney Studios'') is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. The park opened on 16 March 2002, and it is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company t ...
in
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France, located about east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, seven Disney-owned hotels, two convention centers, a golf course, an arena, and a shopping, dining and entert ...
. She attended the park's March 2002 opening and the inauguration of the film-based attraction, where she starred as Marguerite - a female actress with whom Short's character, George, falls in love as he stumbles through countless classic movies. ''CinéMagique'' won the 2002
Themed Entertainment Association award for Outstanding Themed Attraction.
In 2009, Delpy starred in ''
The Countess'' as the title character
Elizabeth Báthory
Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Ecsed (, ; ; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman and alleged serial killer from the powerful House of Báthory, who owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Slovakia). Báthory and fo ...
. Her third film as a director, it also starred
Daniel Brühl
Daniel César Martín Brühl González (; ; born 16 June 1978) is a German and Spanish actor. He has received various accolades, including three European Film Awards and three German Film Awards, along with nominations for two Golden Globe Awar ...
and
William Hurt.
Writing and directing
Delpy began being interested in a film-directing career when still a child, and enrolled in a summer directing course at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. She wrote and directed the short film ''Blah Blah Blah'' in 1995 which screened at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023.
The festival has acted ...
. In 2004, she co-wrote ''Before Sunset'', a sequel to the 1995 movie ''Before Sunrise'', with director Richard Linklater and co-star Ethan Hawke. Describing the experience, she said, "I'm not a feminist wearing overalls and hating the male gender. But I'm a definite feminist. I don't want to make ''Before Sunset'' into a little male fantasy, ever." She received an Academy Award nomination for
Best Adapted Screenplay for her work on the film.
She made her
feature length
A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...
directorial debut in 2002 with ''Looking for Jimmy,'' which she also wrote and produced. In 2007 she directed, wrote, edited, and co-produced the original score for ''
2 Days in Paris,'' co-starring
Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg (born October 25, 1970) is an American actor. Known for his supporting roles in film and television, Goldberg has appeared in films such as '' Dazed and Confused'', ''Saving Private Ryan'', '' A Beautiful Mind'' and ''Zodiac''. He ...
. It also features Delpy's real-life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents.
In 2011 she wrote and directed ''Le Skylab,'' which received a theatrical release in France but failed to find distribution in the U.S. In 2012 she released ''
2 Days in New York'', a sequel to her 2007 film ''2 Days in Paris,'' starring Delpy and actor
Chris Rock in a role she said she wrote specifically for him. In 2013, she reunited with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke to write ''Before Midnight'', the sequel to ''Before Sunrise'' and ''Before Sunset''. She again starred with Hawke, and the film premiered at the
2013 Sundance Film Festival. It screened out of competition at the
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
and was released in May 2013. Delpy, Linklater and Hawke were later nominated for a
Best Adapted Screenplay at the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
. Responding to criticism of the film's nudity, Delpy said in interview with ''
GQ Magazine
''GQ'' (short for ''Gentlemen's Quarterly'' and previously known as ''Apparel Arts'') is an international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though ...
'':
Some people were like, 'It's not feminist. You're showing your tits and he's not showing his ass.' utisn't it the people who are hiding women behind layers of clothes who are the misogynists? I'm a real person, so it's a statement to say, 'Alright, I'm a forty year-old woman, and this is what you get with no plastic surgery.'
''
Lolo'' was Delpy's second French-language feature film, and the first she'd directed since ''2 Days in New York''. She was also slated to write and direct the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
movie ''Cancer Vixen'', starring
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise Blanchett ( ; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor and producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognised for Cate Blanchett on screen and stage, her versatile work across stage and scre ...
as
Marisa Acocella Marchetto, a cartoonist for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' who is diagnosed with cancer. The project has yet to materialize as of 2020. In early 2014, Delpy announced her next writing-directing project would be ''A Dazzling Display of Splendor'' and focus on a family of
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
performers. It has also failed to enter production as of 2020.
Delpy courted controversy in 2016 when the Oscar nominations included no Black honorees. "Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media ... It's funny—women can't talk. I sometimes wish I were African-American because people don't bash them afterward." She later apologized for the comment.
Music
Delpy is also a musical artist. Three tracks from her 2003 album ''
Julie Delpy -'' "A Waltz for a Night", "An Ocean apart", and "Je t'aime tant" - were featured in ''Before Sunset''. She composed the original score for ''2 Days in Paris'' in which she performed Marc Collin's "Lalala" over the closing credits. She also wrote the music for her 2009 film ''The Countess''.
Personal life
Delpy moved to New York in 1990, then to Los Angeles a few years later. She has been a naturalized US citizen since 2001 although she also retains her French citizenship. She divides her time between Paris and Los Angeles.
From 2007 to 2012 she was in a relationship with German film composer
Marc Streitenfeld. Their son was born in January 2009.
In 2015 she married Dimitris Birbilis.
Delpy has expressed her commitment to correcting inaccurate assumptions regarding feminism, telling
IndieWire "I'm very dedicated to feminism
uteven if I'm a feminist, I don't think all women are perfect. If we're equal to men, we are also imperfect like men ...
ome mentry to say
eministsthink that women are better than men, and I want to tell them, 'no'". In a 2007 interview with
Jan Lisa Huttner, she said, "I was raised by a feminist, so I'm not a feminist. I don't need to be. I’m equal to men. I have no issues with the idea that I'm the same as a man. I have my differences; I have breasts, and different plumbing, different stuff down there. But outside of this, my consciousness, my capacity at creating, my capacity at doing things is the same as a man". However, in a 2012 interview with
Emily Greenhouse
Emily Greenhouse (born 1986) is an American journalist. She became the editor of ''The New York Review of Books'' in March 2021, after having been appointed co-editor in March 2019.
Education and career
Greenhouse graduated from Pelham Memorial ...
in ''The New Yorker'', she said, "You know, I've been raised by feminists, and I'm such a feminist, there's no way I'm not going to be feminist, because my core is so deeply feminist that I can even make sexist comments about women, and I feel still a feminist".
Delpy has said she has been plagued by health problems since childhood and had to wear
callipers at age eight. She also occasionally experiences migraines and panic-attacks.
In 2022, Delpy was an honoree by the
Carnegie Corporation of New York
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world.
Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...
's
Great Immigrant Award.
Filmography
As actress
As filmmaker
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delpy, Julie
1969 births
20th-century French actresses
21st-century French actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Paris
American women singer-songwriters
American child actresses
American feminists
American film actresses
American film score composers
American television actresses
American women film directors
American women film score composers
American women screenwriters
English-language singers from France
Film directors from Los Angeles
French emigrants to the United States
French women singers
French child actresses
French feminists
French film actresses
French film directors
French film score composers
French women film score composers
French women screenwriters
French singer-songwriters
French television actresses
French women film directors
Feminist musicians
Living people
Musicians from Paris
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Naturalized citizens of the United States
21st-century French women composers
21st-century French composers